


Forest of the Lost

by musesmistress



Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 22:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2245803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musesmistress/pseuds/musesmistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kahlan finds herself chasing Richard into a forest that very few come out of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forest of the Lost

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Livejournal Legendland's "The Beginning is the End" challenge.  
> Unbeta'd - Sorry for any mistakes.

“Richard.” Kahlan said with a tone of warning in her voice. This was becoming more than a game or a joke now. He turned and she watched the recognition of who she was flash over his face and, as had happened the last four weeks, the confusion of trying to remember her name. “Put your boot on.”

He looked down, staring at the object as if it had done something to offend him and Kahlan couldn’t help but sigh. “Yes, that’s a boot, put it on.”

He sat down, and picked it up to examine it before trying to shove his already booted food into it. Kahlan closed her eyes and gave a silent prayer for patients before going over and taking the boot from him. “The other foot.” She shoved it onto his foot and began to lace it up, figuring it would be easier to just do it with the length of time it would take for him to actually remember how.

There had to an explanation for this, how they ended up like there. There was really. She just didn’t believe it, it was that ridiculous that it couldn’t possibly have happened.

\---

Richard paused on the path, his head high and looking skyward. There was something eerie about this place and he didn’t like it at all. Zedd came to a stop beside him, looked up and turned to face him.

“What is it, boy?”

“Something doesn’t feel right,” he said, then turned to check on Cara and Kahlan. Behind him on the road Cara was pulling a pack horse, the bags strapped to its side contained a large amount of supplies they’d been given in the last town. Kahlan was balanced on top of the horse, asleep, she’d had a horrible night in the village, they hadn’t left her along for a minute and she’d practically been forced to take confessions and requests all night. The horse they’d been given to carry everything had been the only way for Kahlan to rest while they escaped the onslaught of people.

Ignoring the fact that his skin crawled, Richard pushed on, hoping to find water and a place to stop so that Kahlan could sleep for a few hours, have lunch and then carry on with the rest of them. It wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

He could hear the water of the creek long before he stepped into the clearing. He turned around in it, checking the surrounding trees and even looking up at the sky through the canopy above. Something about this place made him shudder, but the others seemed completely at ease. 

Shrugging it off, he moved over to the horse and pulled Kahlan’s pack out and laid out her bedroll while Zedd set up the fire. Cara vanished into the forest to find kindling and twigs, so he slowly lowered Kahlan down and lay her gently on the roll. She stirred only a little, turned over and was back to sleep before he knew it. He watched her for barely a minute before he grabbed the water skins and pan and headed in the direction of the water.

\---

Kahlan grabbed Richard by the arm and tugged him in the right direction. She needed to find rope, that would do it, strap him to her then he wouldn’t wonder off into the Forest of the Lost. This place was a maze of its own and it was only the fact that she’d been here several times before that led her in the right direction.

She’d slept most of the day before, waking up only for meals, the night before had exhausted her so much she hadn’t been given a chance to warn the others what they were heading into. She wondered vaguely if that had been the villages plan from the moment they walked in.

“I don’t remember your name again.” Richard words hurt no less now than they had three hours ago. She’d finally caught up to him chasing a Fallen Wisp that only he could see and discovered that the simplest things had vanished from his mind. His own name, her name, where he was, what he was, what he was meant to do. Even things like tying his own shoes and remembering to pick up his pack and sword. She had to tell him everything in small details. 

It was frustrating to say the least.

“Look, its back.” Before she could take in what he’d said, Richard had turned and vanished into the tree in a completely different direction.

“Richard,” she called, following him quickly before they became lost.

\---

It wasn’t until the next morning that things changed. The night before Richard told them all about the little wisp he’d seen by the creek, how he’d touched it and it had shown him how to get to his desired future. The key to loving Kahlan was there, but he wouldn’t say what it was. Kahlan kept quiet, the stories she’d heard of this forest where of lost people; they came in, but never came out again. Except for one man who mapped the whole forest for the Confessors and boasted of seeing small yellow fairies who whispered promises to him. The story was, he had been lost in the forest so long he’d lost his sanity to it.

In the morning though, Richard just lay on his mat until Zedd told him to sit up. Cara had handed him food, but he didn’t eat until told and only then when he’d watched Kahlan for a time. After that it had really hit them that what the wisp had taken in exchange for his future, was every simple task Richard had ever performed. Tying his shoes, getting dressed, starting a fire – everything was gone. The people around him knew him and he knew them, but he knew their name only from the time they said it to the time he looked away from them. Then their name was gone again.

They’d been packing up the camp when Richard had run into the forest shouting about another wisp. Kahlan had barely managed to stop Cara from following and reasoned with both the Wizard and Mord’Sith that she knew the forest and would be better at tracking him and getting him back quickly.

Zedd and Cara headed back to the village for potion supplies to undo what the wisps had done, while she followed Richard. She only had to get him back to the village to set everything right.

And hope he would keep the memory of how to spend the rest of his life with her.


End file.
